We spent 8 days in a beautiful state park in Aurora, Co. We had full hookup sites for $24 a night. We had to pay an additional $8 a day to get into the state park. The name of the park was Cherry Creek. It was just a little south of Denver. They had beautiful bicycle/hiking trails here that were all concrete. Lucky people who lived right outside the park and could go for a bike ride everyday.
We took a long scenic ride (215 miles) through the Rocky Mountain National Park. It was nice but this mountain wasn't anywhere as pretty as the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. They were definitely high though. At one point we were over 12000 feet high.
Another day we did factory tours. We visited a candy factory (Hammonds). They sell to Harry &
David as well as other high end stores. The temperature in the candy making area was anywhere from 85 to 110 degrees. I sure couldn't work here.
After this we did a tour of Celestial Seasonings. They had a tasting room where you could taste any and all of their teas. It was very interesting. The mint room sure cleared your sinuses.
Last on our tours for the day was the Coors Brewery. It was a great tour. At the end of the tour they gave you 3 glasses of any kind of beer that they made. All you beer lovers would have enjoyed this part. As for me (Rita) I was able to put away 1 glass. Jesse managed to get 2 glasses down. The lounge was packed with beer drinkers getting their 3 free drinks. There is a college in this town and it looked like most of the people in the lounge were students.
We got some bike riding in (finally). Jesse of course would have liked to do more.
The weather has been very hot since we left Yellowstone. How I wish for those cool days again.
We spent one day in Denver. We walked over to the aquarium where we had lunch sitting by the huge fish tank. It was very nice. One day in Denver was enough for us though. We like being in the remote areas better.
On our way through Kansas we stopped at the Eisenhower Presidential Library. We spent more time there than we thought we would. It is amazing how little we really know about our presidents. It was a great site to visit. We hope to do the Truman library when we get to Missouri.
We are now sitting in Independence, Missouri right outside Kansas City.
Went to have our Kansas City steaks tonight after we settled in. The steaks are very tender but also very, very expensive. Well that is our treat for this vacation (ha-ha). Glad we did it, won't do it again though.
There is a big festival going on here over the weekend. Also want to see the Truman Library and a Riverboat museum.
We are thinking of staying here through Labor Day weekend. Not sure if we'll have trouble finding a campsite over the long weekend. We are hoping to have time to stop in St. Louis, Missouri to see the arch and a few other things between here and Goshen, In. We need to be in Goshen, Indiana by the 9th of Sept. We have reservations there on the 9th before pulling into the Fairgrounds in Goshen on the 10th. Our camping rally starts on the 12th and goes through the 17th.
After the rally I guess we'll start meandering back home. I can't believe this trip is coming to an end. Seems like we just started.
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